Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology
Lots of young people experience difficulties, such as low mood, anxiety or other mental health issues. They can often feel different to their friends and not know what to do to make things better.
Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology is a specialist service for young people aged 0 to 18 years, who are experiencing these difficulties. We are committed to providing a therapeutic service across Dumfries and Galloway.
Our service includes Clinical Psychologists, and Psychological Therapists. We can see people throughout the region, often in health centres.
We have three specialist services: Medical Paediatrics, Neurodevelopmental and The Looked After Children (LAC) teams.
What We Do
We offer psychological therapy to young people who may be experiencing these difficulties, and sometimes to their families.
We also help families and carers to manage challenging behaviour in younger children (under 8 years).
Psychological therapies are aimed at helping young people with certain types of emotional problems. Therapists are trained to use effective therapies.
Psychological therapies involve helping young people and their families to understand the problem(s) better and how to tackle them. This often includes:
- Working together with the therapist to understand what is causing the problem
- Learning new ways of coping
Therapies involve setting clear aims or goals to work towards. It is not a long-term service, as it aims to help young people continue to make progress themselves when sessions have ended.
Referral Information
Young people can be referred to our service by their GP, or other health professionals working with the family. We also accept referrals from Social Work and Educational Psychologists. All referrals should be copied to the GP.
For young people aged 16-18, the young person should usually still be in full-time education. If a young person has left school, other services within the department may be more appropriate.
Contact us
Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology
Department of Psychological Services and Research
Mountainhall Treatment Centre
Bankend Road
Dumfries
DG1 4AP
Tel. 01387 244495,
Open Monday to Friday, 8.30am-5pm, for enquiries.